The present invention relates to a system for dispensing articles and, more particularly, to a system for dispensing different drugs in the form of pills, capsules, etc. with high speed and with the assurance that the right amount of drug is dispensed into the proper container associated with a particular drug prescription.
Devices are known for precisely counting and dispensing drugs, such as the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,332. It is known to use a plurality of such counting and dispensing devices, each associated with one drug, to fill large numbers of prescriptions. However, the need for filling large numbers of prescriptions at high speed has exceeded the capacity of mere banks of such devices. It has been found that the article counting and dispensing devices require too frequent filling with the drugs to be dispensed and that the time for dispensing the drugs to fill a prescription is too slow.
Idle time in the operation of such devices as presently employed is caused by the fact that the operator must now wait on the average of 12 seconds for every prescription filled. Another 25% of time is spent replenishing the counting and dispensing devices with drugs. The operator must obtain the bottles of drugs, break the seals, open each bottle, and remove desiccants and packing material. The operator opens a cabinet in which a counting and dispensing device is contained, moves the device to a position in which the device projects from the cabinet, and removes a fill cap on the device. The contents of the drug bottles are emptied into the hopper of the counting and dispensing device, filling the hopper to the recommended capacity. The operator then replaces the fill cap, moves the device back into the cabinet in its dispensing position, and disposes of drug bottles, caps, cotton, desiccants and other dunnage. This procedure is followed for each of the counting and dispensing devices, wherein one drug is associated with each of the devices.